An extremist, not a fanatic

September 10, 2006

It's the banjolele, stupid

In this week's Spectator, Paul Johnson perpetuates a howling error, one that has disfigured English culture for decades. He says:

Each day I would walk on the front [in Lytham], often meeting George Formby, the great, sad comedian who played the ukelele plaintively.

This is wrong. George did not play the ukulele. He played the banjolele, or banjo ukulele.
The ukulele is a different thing altogether - it's a small four-stringed guitar. The pictures illustrate the difference. In this respect, of course, George was at one with another of the Greatest Englishmen Who Ever Lived.

The ukulele is a quiet instrument - hence the Ukelele Orch, which is a lot of people. The banjolele, while not as loud as the banjo, is audible in the Upper Circle at the Holborn Empire, if noone's snoring.

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